Connections are up, and so is the cost, largely thanks to an ‘uplift in cybersecurity’, according to Service Australia’s CEO.
The Healthcare Identifiers Service experienced significant growth in 2023-24 of between 7.5% and 15.4% depending on the type of HI assigned, according to the service’s annual report.
Most impressive was the 15.4% increase in the number of individual healthcare identifiers assigned, rising from 536,425 in 2022-23 to 619,070 in the last financial year.
The number of HIs assigned to healthcare provider organisations rose 10.6% from 3230 in 2022-23 to 3573 in 2023-24. And 59,674 individual healthcare providers were assigned identifiers, up 7.5% from 2022-23.
Under the HI Act the HIS can legally disclose healthcare identifiers to providers, patients, registration authorities, security entities and the My Health Record operator. In 2023-24, the number of disclosures by phone or service centres halved to just 2101, but in contrast, online web service disclosures boomed from 511.1 million in 2022-23 to 714.8 million in the past year.
In terms of service level performance failed to meet some significant targets.
Notably only 68.8% of customers had their call to the HIS call centre answered inside seven minutes, well below the target of 80% or better. Providers had their calls answered in less than two minutes 73.3% of the time (under the 80% target).
Online service requests were resolved within five business days 92.71% of the time (below the 95% target).
Total expenditure on the HIS was $13.5 million, a 37.8% increase on the 2022-23 expenditure of $9.8 million.
“In 2023–24 financial year, there was continued growth in active identifiers and increased connections,” said Services Australia CEO David Hazlehurst.
“As part of the government’s healthcare modernisation, this year, we’ve continued to prepare for the future of healthcare identifiers across health, aged care and disability sectors.
“In line with the need for cybersecurity uplift across the board, we’ve helped customers with older certificates transition to a more digitally secure system.
“We’ve also been pleased to support the Services Australia life events birth of a child pilot, connecting children to digital health services earlier.”
Read the full Health Identifiers Service annual report here.